Two new free mini trail walking guides for The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025 were today launched with printed copies of the compact city centre routes available from selected shops, cafes, pubs, and restaurants in the area.
The family-friendly Maritime Stories Mini Trail and Union Street Secrets Mini Trail, produced by Aberdeen City Council, are designed to encourage people discover places full of history and heritage.
The mini trails is a new format designed especially for the Tall Ships with a smaller footprint than existing trail guides to make them easily walkable in the city centre for both locals and visitors to the event, which is Europe’s biggest family-friendly festival and taking place from 19 to 22 July 2025.
Printed copies of the mini trail booklets are available from most shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants in Union Street Central and The Green areas for the first few weeks, as part of work to encourage people to show that businesses in these areas remain open for business while major building works are being carried out in these areas. The mini trails are also available as printable downloads from the Council’s website.
The Lord Provost of Aberdeen Dr David Cameron said: “The Tall Ships Races will be a fantastic and fun event for the city and it’s great to have these new mini trail guides to offer people.
“We live in a beautiful city with a rich history so it’s great the two new mini trail guides show people what there is while highlighting many little interesting quirks and oddities.
“We look forward to welcoming hundreds of thousands of people to Aberdeen for The Tall Ships Races and I’m sure these free guides will be much used.”
The Maritime Stories Mini Trail covers Aberdeen’s maritime history from the earliest written reference to shipping dating from the 12th century to Port of Aberdeen’s new South Harbour which welcomes a new size and scale of ships to the city, including cruise lines from around the world.
The Union Street Secrets includes many historic and quirky features about the Granite Mile from its start as an engineering marvel as a mile-long main street built on bridges, to how it has changed since its Georgian build and continues to evolve today.
The new mini trails mean there is now a total of 29 full trails and two mini trails in the Council trail guide series covering many historical and natural gems around the city. There free downloadable walking trail guides are available online at the City Council’s website at Free walks and trails in Aberdeen | Aberdeen City Council.
Printed versions of the mini trails will be available from other city centre businesses and venues in the run up to The Tall Ships Races and more information about this will be made public at the time. The Tall Ships Races Aberdeen 2025 is being brought to the city by Aberdeen City Council, Port of Aberdeen, and Aberdeen Inspired.
The new mini trails also complement other Tall Ships Races guides produced by Aberdeen Line 200 Committee. More information about the Tall Ships event is at The Tall Ships Races | Aberdeen | 19-22 July 2025 | Tall Ships Aberdeen
The major building works being carried out as part of the £150million City Centre and Beach Masterplan which includes Union Street Central, the new market building, and at the city's beach area. They will create vibrant and accessible areas to help make the city a destination of choice for the benefit of residents, visitors, and businesses and more information about the works is available at Generation Aberdeen | Our City of Opportunity